Journal Club: Broadening Participation in STEM

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The Southern University and A&M College FaST contingent readies their experiment sample inside the GSECARS 13-BM-C enclosure at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory.

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Overview

This group will read a selection of research articles on proven strategies for diversifying the STEM disciplines. Each participant will choose strategies based on their own context and will develop an implementation plan.

Discussion series goals

1. Participants will use scholarly articles as a framework to consider challenges and opportunities for broadening participation in STEM at their institution.
2. Participants will discuss examples of efforts at a variety of scales (course, program, and institutional level) at 2YCs to broaden participation in STEM.
3. Participants will develop an individual action plan for broadening participation in STEM at the course, program, or institutional level.

Structure and format

Prior to 1^st Meeting

• Each participant reviewed course-level student outcomes data from their courses (from the previous year). Course-level student outcomes data we used includes both student enrollment and success (grade of C or higher) data, broken down by demographic groups including race/ethnicity, gender, and Pell eligibility (a proxy for socioeconomic status). We compare enrollment data to institutional demographic data for the student body (available from IPEDS) to see whether our courses are attracting a representative cross-section of the institution's student population. We compare student success data across demographic groups to identify any equity gaps.
• Participants posted to a discussion board about what they wanted to get out of their participation in this journal club, based on their review of their data.

1^st Meeting

• Each participant presented a ~10-minute overview of their course-level outcomes data, highlighting enrollment disparities and/or equity gaps that they hoped to address in the context of the journal club.
• Participants and facilitators discussed individual and group goals for the journal club.

Prior to 2^nd Meeting

• Each participant read the following articles:
  • Jin, Lixin, Diane Doser, Vanessa Lougheed, Elizabeth J. Walsh, Lina Hamdan, Maryam Zarei, and Guadalupe Corral (2019). Experiential learning and close mentoring improve recruitment and retention in the undergraduate environmental science program at an Hispanic-serving institution: Journal of Geoscience Education, 67:4, 384-399, DOI: 10.1080/10899995.2019.1646072.
  • Marín-Spiotta, Erika, Rebecca T. Barnes, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Meredith G. Hastings, Allison Mattheis, Blair Schneider, and Billy M. Williams (2020). Hostile Climates are barriers to diversifying the geosciences: Advances in Geosciences, v. 53, pp. 117–127, https://doi.org/10.5194/adgeo-53-117-2020.
  • Wilson-Kennedy, Zakiya S., Florastina Payton-Stewart, and Leyte L. Winfield (2020). Toward Intentional Diversity, Equity, and Respect in Chemistry Research and Practice: Journal of Chemical Education, v. 97, n.8, pp. 2041-2044.
• By 2 days before the meeting:
  • Participants post a short reflection on our (password-protected) discussion board.
    • What did you find interesting or surprising in these papers?
    • What questions do you have about the research they describe? What do you want to know more about?
  • Participants read each other's posts.

2^nd Meeting

• Discussion of the comments and questions posted on the discussion board.
• The discussion facilitator takes notes during the discussion on our (password-protected) notes page.

Prior to 3^rd Meeting

• Each participant read the following articles:
  • Institute for Broadening Participation (2016). Designing for Success: Positive Factors that support success in STEM pathways and reduce barriers to participation: what does the research say about what enables students to succeed and persist in STEM fields?
  • Starobin, Soko S. and Frankie Santos Laanan (2008). Broadening Female Participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: Experiences at Community Colleges: New Directions for Community Colleges, v. 2008, n. 142, pp. 37-46. https://doi.org/10.1002/cc.323.
• By 2 days before the meeting:
  • Participants post a short reflection on our (password-protected) discussion board: describe a broadening participation technique of your choice that you would like to use and why you think that it would be effective at your institution.
  • Participants read and respond to each other's posts.

3^rd Meeting

• Participants and facilitators discuss techniques they have used in the past to broaden participation and the efficacy of these efforts, as well as ideas they gotten from the reading.
• The discussion facilitator takes notes during the discussion on our (password-protected) notes page.

Prior to 4^th Meeting

• Each participant drafts a proposed implementation planfor broadening participation and prepares a ~5 minute presentation of their implementation plan.

4^th Meeting

• Each participant gives an informal ~5 minute presentation of their implementation plan; others ask questions and offer constructive feedback.

Timing

We scheduled 2 weeks between each of the 4 synchronous discussions in this series, to allow time for faculty members to read and digest the material and to post their responses to the discussion board prior to each of the synchronous meetings.

References

• Institute for Broadening Participation (2016). Designing for Success: Positive Factors that support success in STEM pathways and reduce barriers to participation: what does the research say about what enables students to succeed and persist in STEM fields?
• Jin, Lixin, Diane Doser, Vanessa Lougheed, Elizabeth J. Walsh, Lina Hamdan, Maryam Zarei, and Guadalupe Corral (2019). Experiential learning and close mentoring improve recruitment and retention in the undergraduate environmental science program at an Hispanic-serving institution: Journal of Geoscience Education, 67:4, 384-399, DOI: 10.1080/10899995.2019.1646072.
• Marín-Spiotta, Erika, Rebecca T. Barnes, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Meredith G. Hastings, Allison Mattheis, Blair Schneider, and Billy M. Williams (2020). Hostile Climates are barriers to diversifying the geosciences: Advances in Geosciences, v. 53, pp. 117–127, https://doi.org/10.5194/adgeo-53-117-2020.
• Starobin, Soko S. and Frankie Santos Laanan (2008). Broadening Female Participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: Experiences at Community Colleges: New Directions for Community Colleges, v. 2008, n. 142, pp. 37-46. https://doi.org/10.1002/cc.323.
• Wilson-Kennedy, Zakiya S., Florastina Payton-Stewart, and Leyte L. Winfield (2020). Toward Intentional Diversity, Equity, and Respect in Chemistry Research and Practice: Journal of Chemical Education, v. 97, n.8, pp. 2041-2044.